Solar pump or drip? A Barmer farmer with ₹26,000, a pending mutation and an overdue KCC
A 3 ha khatedar farmer in Barmer irrigates from a 25 m deep borewell with a 5 HP diesel pump. In rabi he runs it 8 hours a day for 120 days at about 1.2 litres of diesel per hour; diesel costs ₹95 a litre. He has applied for a PM-KUSUM Component-B solar pump of 5 HP against a benchmark cost of ₹2,60,000, with 60% subsidy, 30% bank loan at 9% simple interest and 10% beneficiary share. Two problems: his KCC has an overdue instalment of ₹60,000, and the jamabandi still carries his late father's name because mutation has not been sanctioned. Meanwhile a drip dealer quotes ₹65,000 per ha at benchmark cost, and the farmer claims 55% assistance 'as a small farmer'. His ber orchard is 1.4 ha; the rest is guar and bajra. He has ₹26,000 of savings and can fund only one of the two investments.
1. Work out the annual diesel cost and test whether the solar pump is financially viable.
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Diesel use = 1.2 L/h × 8 h × 120 days = 1,152 L; at ₹95/L that is ₹1,09,440 per rabi season. Farmer share = 10% of ₹2,60,000 = ₹26,000; loan = 30% = ₹78,000 at 9% simple, so even if repaid in a year the interest is only ₹7,020.
The pump therefore recovers the ₹26,000 down payment in under four months of rabi pumping, and the loan within about ten months of avoided diesel. On these figures it is clearly viable - but only if the assumptions hold. Verify that the pump actually ran 960 hours, and size the unit to the borewell yield: a 5 HP pump on a falling aquifer can over-extract and dry the well, in which case the saving is illusory.
2. Identify the eligibility problems and correct the farmer's subsidy arithmetic for drip.
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Three problems. First, the jamabandi is in his father's name: until mutation is sanctioned he is not the recorded khatedar, and the application will be rejected. He needs the death certificate, pedigree and consent of other heirs, and a fresh jamabandi. Second, a ₹60,000 overdue KCC instalment makes him a bank defaulter; the 30% loan component will not be sanctioned until it is cleared or restructured, and the subsidy alone cannot buy the unit. Third, at 3 ha he is not a small or marginal farmer (marginal below 1 ha, small 1–2 ha), so drip assistance is 45%, not 55%.
Arithmetic: 1 ha drip costs ₹65,000; assistance 45% = ₹29,250; farmer share = ₹35,750, more than his ₹26,000. On 0.7 ha the cost is ₹45,500, assistance ₹20,475 and his share about ₹25,025, which his savings just cover.
3. Recommend a six-month sequence of actions, including how to protect the aquifer.
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Months 1–2: clear or restructure the KCC arrears so he is not a defaulter; pursue mutation at the tehsil and obtain the corrected jamabandi. Nothing else will move until these two are done.
Months 2–4: because water, not money, is the binding constraint, install drip on 0.7 ha of ber at the 45% rate - it fits his savings and cuts pumping hours immediately. Keep the diesel pump for the remaining area.
Months 4–6: apply for the solar pump once the loan account is regular, with the borewell registered and the capacity matched to yield; ask for 3 HP rather than 5 HP if the yield is low. Use the saved diesel money for mulching and a small kharif area, and resist expanding guar onto the water saved - otherwise the aquifer is drawn down again and the investment is wasted.